Day 6 - return home

After a great sleep at Buck Creek State Park that was all too short, I drove. As I approached Columbus, I realized that I might be able to connect with Beth, my bonus daughter. I hadn't meet my newest granddaughter, Ramsey! Amazingly, Beth was able to load up the girls and meet me for breakfast!

There was a huge storm following me all day and at the end of my drive it went south so I went southeast. At that point, the sun was in the west and there were storm cells everywhere. The rainbows produced  were  incredible! I could see the beginning and the end of the rainbows and usually there were at least 2 separate rainbows, often double. Anyway, for the longest time I had a rainbow coming off of my car hood! At that point I wondered if I had perhaps died (seriously!) and I want aware of it.  And if I was dead, was I eternally camping?

Turns out that I'm still alive. 

Day 5 - Ann Arbor

Sunday. Pack up and move on.  To Ann Arbor to visit with family and celebrate Destiny's birthday! Then I returned her to her family and realized  that I didn't know where I was going for the night! So. I started driving.

I ended up at Buck Creek State Park. At 11p. And it rained a bit. And I loved it!

Day 4 - Detroit Zoo

Jill was volunteering at the Detroit Zoo on Saturday. Crazy parking situation there. Excellent weather brought everyone to the zoo! The staff was parking cars in the grass, on the side walks, ... it was nutty but it worked!

Detroit has a very nice zoo. We especially enjoyed the 4d shows and the animation dinosaurs! They have a kangaroo display that you walk through and you are with the kangaroos. Almost like Australia! :-)

Fun day!

Day 2 and 3 - on to Michigan

I slept great and headed out the next morning. I couldn't shower because all the water was cold... well, I couldn't  completely shower. I think I have the opening and closing of Polly PUP down. It will be fine tuned add I go along but it's become fast and easy.

I picked Destiny up around noon. Then what should have been a 3 and a half hour drive became a SIX hour drive. Construction and traffic. Yuck. But we had plenty of time and to be honest, we stopped FOUR times! Once for grocery shopping, once for gas, once for drinks, and you know it, once for bathrooms.

We were joined by my mother at Brighton Recreation Area. Set up camp, Destiny claimed the camper, ate a very late dinner, and then a VERY bold raccoon tried to join us! He stayed in the tree right next to us while we ate and kept sneaking down trying to get a snack. I had to pack everything food related back into my car. I usually do that anyway, we have bears in Virginia.

Brighton, like most Michigan parks has rather close camp sites. But during the week it's fairly empty. And the bathrooms are nice! The lake was lovely. On Saturday, Destiny swam, but it wasn't  really that hot, so I watched. Then we went out to geocache and found it! Yay us!  Saturday night we went on the "owl prowl". Didn't see or hear any owls but hiking at dusk is divine.

Campout!

Wow. This could be a very long post because I didn't have my phone during most of the 6 day trip. My granddaughter had it! She was usually texting with her friend.

So, I will start with day 1. Some rain, but light, heavy fog in Cumberland/Frostburg  area.

Got to Ohio and Barkcamp State Park was too soon to stop. I went on to Dillon. Route 70 through Ohio is great for camping. From east to west there are state parks every couple of hours or less!

It was early enough that I set up the camper, had dinner and went for a nice walk around the campground before dark. A neighboring camper came to see Polly. She does attract a lot of attention. She's so tiny!

Travel!

I will be taking Polly out for a real trip today...  and what was supposed to be so fun, isn't.  The camper is perfect for ME, and fine for me with one guest. So, I was taking Polly up to pick up Destiny and camp in Michigan. 

But we have an additional guest. So, I have had to pack up all my tent equipment,  too! Argh! It would be better to leave Polly at home and pack up my Infiniti with my tent equipment! I'm worried about the extra weight stress on the old Subaru. I have so much stuff packed that I can't access my camper easily.  It will probably be faster and easier to use a tent tonight since it's just a single night layover on the way to Greenville...

So, here I sit, in dread. How stupid is this? I feel like ditching the sweet camper, AND my tents, and just going to a hotel. Actually,  I could stay at Jill's! But I already paid for the campsite.

Come on, Deb.